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It is proving unpopular with the muezzins – the human voice of the call to prayer up to now – as well as traditionalists for whom the clashing sounds of the chants, whether in tune or out of it, are part of the city's charm.

The muezzins fear losing their prestige or even their jobs, as they are not necessarily the mosque's prayer leaders.

"The Prophet Mohammed never ordered people to unify their calls to prayer in Medina, so we shouldn't do the same in Cairo," said Sheikh Youssef al-Badri, a conservative cleric.

Medina is the city in Saudi Arabia where Mohammed founded Islam in the seventh century and where he first instructed a follower named Bilal to calls believers to prayer.

The government of President Hosni Mubarak is often at war with independent Islamic voices in Egypt, but this move is more part of sporadic attempts to bring order to the chaos of Cairo's overpacked streets.

The first minarets in Cairo were built not long after, in 673AD – one at each of the four corners of the Amr mosque.